Soldiers of Fortune

Approach Advanced Internet Technologies Inc.'s headquarters,
and you'll wonder if you've got the right address. The two
concrete buildings that house the Fayetteville, North Carolina, Web
hosting company are protected 24/7 with cameras and alarm
systems--even partially by armed guards and chain link and barbed
wired fences. Founder and CEO Clarence Briggs started AIT in 1996
while still an infantry major in the Army, doing double-duty until
he decided to pursue his venture full time a year later. Still, he
hasn't forgotten his roots and demonstrates just how much
military experience can be applied to business.

Briggs leads with the same sense of discipline and structure
already instilled in him and much of his staff--80 percent have a
military background, and seven of the eight senior executives have
had top-secret clearance. Leadership management, good
organizational skills, depth training and synchronization are four
key principles he has implemented at AIT. "That's what we
knew and understood," explains Briggs, 43. "It's
effective, because there are a lot of similarities between the
marketplace and the battlefield. You've got competitive forces,
whether it's competing for resources, market share or key
terrain."

Among the militarylike practices are quarterly staff reviews
conducted by a three-officer panel, in which employees endure a
15-minute Q&A session, and monthly hands-on, role-playing war
games used to reveal staff members' strengths and weaknesses.
And although color-coded badges distinguish between corporate
executives, managers and technicians, employees are cross-trained
in a variety of positions, including chief officers who spend one
day a month in the "pit," a 24-hour tech support center.
"The most important thing we do is provide products and
services to our customers," attests Briggs. "We don't
ever want to get too far from that. You get insensitive when all
you do is sit atop your ivory tower and read reports."

Though the company is more rigid than most, you won't see
employees marching down the hallway or managers constantly barking
orders. Instead, staff members win awards for innovation and
commitment, as well as for customers' successes, which AIT sees
as a reflection of their employees' efforts. With projected
2003 sales between $35 million and $38 million, Briggs attributes
much of AIT's success to his staff: "We look for folks who
supervise, follow up, multitask, mentor, take initiative and
implement guidance creatively--whether they have military
experience or not."